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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29756130">What I Need</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/IetjeSiobhan/pseuds/IetjeSiobhan'>IetjeSiobhan</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aromantic Asexual Kozume Kenma, Fluff, Gen, Queerplatonic Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou, Queerplatonic relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 23:14:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,198</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29756130</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/IetjeSiobhan/pseuds/IetjeSiobhan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kenma is Aroace. Kuroo isn't. It's not as much of a problem as everyone else seems to think it is.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kozume Kenma &amp; Kuroo Tetsurou, Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>152</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>What I Need</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/fizzii/gifts">fizzii</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I suddenly felt compelled to write a short fic about aroace Kenma.<br/>Don't ask me why, I could not give you the answer, but this: exists now. :) &lt;3</p><p>Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. I do not financially profit from this work. The characters do not belong to me, I merely borrowed them.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tetsurou is completely, entirely, irrevocably in love with Kenma. So much so that Kenma is his every waking thought, so much so that he wants nothing more than to spend the rest of his life by Kenma’s side.</p><p>He is also completely and entirely fine with never having more than a friendship with Kenma.</p><p>It’s a conversation they had, over ten years ago. When Tetsurou came out as bisexual to Kenma, and, in the same conversation, told Kenma he was in love with him.</p><p>Kenma had looked at him, then, and for the first time in a long time, he had cried. And then he’d come out to Tetsurou: as aroace. Tetsurou remembers the sorrow on Kenma’s face, at knowing he could never return Tetsurou’s feelings in this way, at knowing he could never give Tetsurou a romantic relationship.</p><p>(Tetsurou knows that Kenma remembers how gently Tetsurou had held him, how lovingly he had told him he didn’t care.)</p><p>They had had this conversation, then: about what Tetsurou wanted, and about what Kenma wanted. As it turned out, what they both wanted and still want is largely the same.</p><p>For Tetsurou, it’s Kenma, and Kenma only, and it doesn’t really matter in what shape or form; he wants nothing more than to spend the rest of his life by Kenma’s side.</p><p>For Kenma, it’s much the same; he, too, wants nothing more than to spend the rest of his life by Tetsurou’s side, even though he is much less vocal or sappy about it.</p><p>They moved in together after school, and they’re still living together, and Tetsurou is happy. Most of their friends didn’t understand it, at first; how Tetsurou could be happy, like this, never having Kenma return his feelings.</p><p>What they don’t understand is that Kenma <em>does</em>, in his way; he doesn’t have to love Tetsurou romantically to love him, and love him he does. Kenma’s platonic love is so big, so all-encompassing; it is like a loving hug when you’re lonely, a cosy blanket when you’re cold, a hot mug of cocoa on a rainy day. Kenma’s love is warm, and cosy, and fills Tetsurou to the brim, wraps him in tendrils of affection, lights him up in a golden glow.</p><p>Tetsurou doesn’t need kisses or sex when he could just have this: Kenma, cosy, on the couch with him, happy to spend time with Tetsurou; Kenma, pausing his new game just to ask Tetsurou about his day; Kenma, bringing home a cat, and calling it their child.</p><p>Tetsurou doesn’t need a romantic relationship.</p><p>What he needs is Kenma, and to be loved, in whatever form that love may come, and he has both of those things.</p><p>He doesn’t understand why he should want anything more.</p><p>He knows he holds a place in Kenma’s heart that nobody else does; knows Kenma wants to spend the rest of his life with Tetsurou as much as Tetsurou wants to spend the rest of his life with Kenma. It’s enough.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>“Kitten,” Tetsurou says softly, waking Kenma up, who has once again fallen asleep on the couch. “I made dinner.”</p><p>Kenma harrumphs unhappily and burrows further into the fluffy blanket he has wrapped around himself.</p><p>“Come on, Ken,” Tetsurou says, laughing fondly, trying to take the blanket away from Kenma.</p><p>He succeeds, but that only leaves Kenma’s arms and hands free, and Kenma uses that newly won freedom to grab at Tetsurou and tug him down on top of him.</p><p>Tetsurou laughs again, but lets himself be tugged.</p><p>Kenma sighs happily into Tetsurou’s shoulder. Tetsurou carefully situates himself and wraps his limbs around Kenma.</p><p>“Okay, okay,” he says, “but only for five minutes, or the food will get cold.”</p><p> </p><p>When they get up nearly an hour later the food is, indeed, cold.</p><p>And Apple Pie, their cat, has stolen a few things.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>Hinata is the only one who was excited and understood, from the start.</p><p>Tetsurou isn’t sure if that is just how Hinata is, always happy, and excitable, and understanding, or if he knows other aroace people, and the idea wasn’t such a novelty to him; he’s never asked Hinata.</p><p>The rest of his friends took a lot longer to understand. They were scared for Tetsurou, at first; that this would break his heart, that he would end up unhappy, never really fulfilled.</p><p>To this day, Tetsurou isn’t exactly sure what exactly it was that made them <em>see</em> and <em>understand</em>.</p><p>But he’s glad they did.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>Yaku tells him, one time, “You’re actually a lot happier than most actual <em>couples</em> that I know. I always hear from people how they’re not getting what they need out of relationships, how they fight all the time with their partner. You two aren’t like that.”</p><p>“We do fight, sometimes,” Tetsurou responds, shrugging his shoulders. “We live together. Of course we do. We just talk it out.”</p><p>“But you’re both happy. You’re getting out of this what you want and need—the both of you,” Yaku says, wonderingly.</p><p>“Of course. We love each other,” Tetsurou says.</p><p>“It really is that simple, huh?”</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>Tetsurou brings Kenma to family events, and vice versa. Neither of their families ever questioned it. His father once asked Tetsurou if he doesn’t want to find a nice girl to settle down with.</p><p>He asked him, “Why?” and he looked like he wanted to answer, but then he just closed his mouth again, and nodded.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>Kenma’s mother would love to have grandchildren.</p><p>Kenma’s not so sold on the idea; they have a cat, and children are a big responsibility, and they’d have to adopt, probably, and maybe have a courthouse wedding abroads, just to be eligible for adoption, and Kenma <em>really</em> doesn’t want to marry, even if it’s just for a status on paper.</p><p>Tetsurou thinks a child would be nice, but he also thinks two more cats would be nice.</p><p>That they would raise children together was never really a topic of conversation. It was just obvious, to the both of them; Kenma doesn’t want a relationship, and Tetsurou doesn’t want to start a relationship with someone <em>else</em>, and they already live together.</p><p>Tsukishima, who has three children with his husband already, which is not necessarily something Tetsurou had expected to happen but suits Tsukishima surprisingly well, just shrugged his shoulders at him when he brought it up.</p><p>“I don’t see why you couldn’t platonically raise a child together,” he said. “Honestly, I think you might do a better job at keeping your child trauma-free than most actual couples, with the current divorce rates.”</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>Kenma is snoring softly. He is sprawled all over the bed and is snoring. He likes to pretend that he doesn’t snore or sprawl, but he definitely does. For such a small person, he can take up a surprising amount of space. Tetsurou has been sharing a bed with him for the past nine years, he should know.</p><p>Tetsurou subtly tries to steal some of the bedsheets back while Apple Pie walks all over him, trying to decide where to get comfortable for the night. She’ll probably just end up sleeping on Tetsurou’s face, nearly suffocating him, the way she does every night.</p><p>He’s happy.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I hope you enjoyed reading this :) If you did, I would be elated if you could leave me a little comment!</p><p>As always, you can find me on twitter under @shiwiwrites where I scream about all sorts of anime-related nonsense (mainly Haikyuu). :D</p></blockquote></div></div>
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